by Jamie Dillon
A point source some 30-40 million lightyears away. In Felix it showed as significantly brighter than the 13.3 and 13.8 magn stars in the foreground field, so I was giving it a conservative 13. Those foreground stars are maybe a couple thousand ly's distant. As you saw, Steve Gottlieb that same night, up north at Lake Sonoma, scored it at ca 12.5. Definitely getting brighter, having started somewhere around 14.5 on discovery by an amateur, just a few days ago.
For Czerwinski, with well over 20 years observing behind his belt, it was also a first supernova. Sure added to my sense of wonder. Albert has been at this some 6 years but had seen 2 or 3 before. Even for him it wasn't routine; his surprise was over how quickly it popped out of the field.
Still haunting my vision.
In all we had a really good night Saturday. Transparency measured 6.2 at zenith, at best, and seeing was often excellent, 5/5, dipping to good 4/5. The Trapezium would always show 6 stars, with the F star sometimes needing effort at 210x. This was all with Felix, a Celestron 11" f/4.5 Dobs with a primary made by Discovery. Was using a 22 Pan, 16mm UO Koenig, 10mm and 6mm Radians.
I was driven at dark, wanting to find more of the Fornax Cluster before it got too close to the hills. Did split 1374 from its close neighbors, 1373 and 1375. Also ran down 1382, a dim little thing in the middle of the cluster. 1365, the big guy in the main cluster, showed dark arcs across its arms. At one point I was working at 126x with the 10mm Radian, and found myself hypnotized, scanning from galaxy to galaxy, not really caring where I was. What a field!
Made it the short way SW to 1316, Fornax A, the big radio galaxy, which showed a very bright core and oval-shaped arms. Has a close companion, 1317. 1326, just over a degree to North, was bright, but 1341 to the east was difficult. 1310 is on SkyAtlas just to E of 1316, and I could only find it by innuendo. Albert looked in Felix, then in his 12.5, and thought he saw a dim splotch a few seconds south of where I thought the thing was. Hmmm, work for another night, like at Cone Peak.
Lots of changing things in the sky that night. The white oval was pursuing the GRS, and Bob Cz found the new comet in his scope. It had a very pretty fan shape.
Finished up the eyepiece work with NGC 1999, looking further after Gottlieb the Astro Animal suggested I ramp up the magnification on this little EN south of M42. Sure enough, it showed a wrapping like a shawl to the East of the bright star, with a hollow space to the West, then more stripes of nebulosity. Pretty, will take sketching and repeated visits.
Various thanks are due here: to Tips for sharing those really tasty sausages, to Albert for helping me find a Messier galaxy (have a bad attitude about M74), to Bob for the comet view, to Elena and Craig for showing off that OC with emission nebula in Puppis (2467), also for showing their faces in the light. Elena has pure observing talent, and Craig is in a class with Bob Czerwinski and Doug Davis, having been into telescopes since he was 12. Layers of experience. You oughta mooch some views from them next time you see The Launcher at a star party.
To Mr Everitt for the conversation, who must be mentioned as having had the Big Aperture for the night. Congrats to Mr Seamus.